Miami, Jun 13 (EFE).- Tech giant Amazon is targeting the lower-income US population by broadening its discount price offer for its Prime subscription service to Medicaid beneficiaries.

Amazon, whose Prime service already has achieved huge penetration among the more affluent public with greater buying power, is now offering membership in its premium program to lower-income US residents for $5.99 per month, half the $12.99 that customers must normally pay.

“Amazon is always seeking ways to make the lives of its customers easier,” company spokesman Ernesto Apreza told EFE on Wednesday.

The firm is thus seeking to expand its presence in the US and world market, where it has more than 100 million Prime users, Apreza said regarding the customers who receive assorted benefits such as free shipping on merchandise bought through Amazon, as well as movies, music, videogames and books in the firm’s catalog.

In this way, the company is now seeking to broaden its customer base, although it has been targeting university students and other lower-income people under the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) program for over a year with reduced-price offers.

More than 35 million adults are beneficiaries of Medicaid, according to US government figures from March, while another 35 million receive help buying basic products with an EBT card, which is commonly used to distribute funds for government assistance programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program (WIC).

Apreza said that Amazon is trying to reach “working families” that are going through a rough period, adding that to benefit from the program, which has been in existence for four years, a person only needs to enter their Medicaid number or send Amazon a photo of their EBT card.

Apreza said that, in keeping with Amazon’s idea of making its services more accessible, the firm in 2017 launched a Spanish-language version of its Web page to better connect with the Latino market.

He also emphasized the “flexibility” of the expanded Prime promotion for Medicaid and EBT beneficiaries, given that it does not require them to sign an annual contract and they can cancel the service any time they like.